Better Late Than Never
It seems like I'm always late to every game. My favorite television show? West Wing. But I didn't discover it until Bravo started showing it nightly and did their big "Get everyone hooked" marathon, sometime after the third or fourth season. Same with Buffy The Vampire Slayer. And I never saw The Daily Show until long after Jon Stewart took the helm. Music? I'm a rabid reggae fan, but I climbed on board mid-Marley, not during the Studio One heyday. And while I did catch the earliest wave on the WWW, I seem to have missed the first breaks in this Podcast thing.
For those who are even farther behind than I am, a Podcast is the latest way of broadcasting just about anything, from a "radio" show to an album to a rant or whatever turns your crank. The concept is simple. A huge percentage of the population spends a huge percentage of their day strapped to an iPod. Why not pre-record shows and make them downloadable so that people can import them into their iPods to listen to at their convenience? It gives anyone a chance to be a broadcaster, and believe me, just about everyone's giving it a shot. I've been listening to a lot of Podcasts lately, and I've heard some absolute garbage. I've heard people screaming threats over political injustices, muttering nervously about sexual fantasies and even showing off some really horrific singing voices just in case someone from Idol is listening.
On the other hand, I've heard some things in the pretty good-to-great range. Former MTV VeeJay Adam Curry has a half hour Podcast called Adam Curry's Daily Source Code that's well worth listening to. He's entertaining, he's got a free hand to play music he believes in, and he seems genuinely interested in being a pioneer in this field. So much so that he's doing things like taking a laptop out to a meadow overlooking the ocean and recording his show on battery power just to show how portable (and laid back) it can be.
If you wanna hear something very strange yet addicting and funny, check out Keith and the Girl. He's a stand-up comedian, she's his girlfriend, and they live in NYC. They'll talk about anything. One show was dedicated to discussion of Keith's psychotic father and the way he messes with his kids' heads. How is that entertainment, you ask? Good question, and I'm on board, in principle, but it's the way these two talk; the banter, the delivery, the ability to laugh at themselves that makes for a show you find yourself laughing out loud at. And cringing, at times, but if they didn't dance on the edge like that, the highs wouldn't be so high.
If you're feeling like you need to have a good laugh at the current administration before you wind up crying, may I recommend Whack My Bush? The Podcasts are short at approximately five minutes, and some of the jokes fall flat, but they're firing them at you so fast there's bound to be a dud here and there. It's just what it sounds like it is: a send up of the Bushies, with Condi as the task-master who keeps little Georgie on track, Tony Blair as a whimpering little wimp - oh, wait, I guess that one wasn't such a reach - and, my favorite, Donald Rumsfeld portrayed as Yoda. "Mmm... STUPID, he is." Quite a lot of fun, all in all.
Yeah, I'm late as hell getting started, but not as late as I usually am. And what I lack in punctuality I always make up for in obsessive-compulsive devotion, so look for more recommendations as I plow my way through the... um... Podesphere?
Excuse me, I'm new here. What do we call this land o' Podcasts?
For those who are even farther behind than I am, a Podcast is the latest way of broadcasting just about anything, from a "radio" show to an album to a rant or whatever turns your crank. The concept is simple. A huge percentage of the population spends a huge percentage of their day strapped to an iPod. Why not pre-record shows and make them downloadable so that people can import them into their iPods to listen to at their convenience? It gives anyone a chance to be a broadcaster, and believe me, just about everyone's giving it a shot. I've been listening to a lot of Podcasts lately, and I've heard some absolute garbage. I've heard people screaming threats over political injustices, muttering nervously about sexual fantasies and even showing off some really horrific singing voices just in case someone from Idol is listening.
On the other hand, I've heard some things in the pretty good-to-great range. Former MTV VeeJay Adam Curry has a half hour Podcast called Adam Curry's Daily Source Code that's well worth listening to. He's entertaining, he's got a free hand to play music he believes in, and he seems genuinely interested in being a pioneer in this field. So much so that he's doing things like taking a laptop out to a meadow overlooking the ocean and recording his show on battery power just to show how portable (and laid back) it can be.
If you wanna hear something very strange yet addicting and funny, check out Keith and the Girl. He's a stand-up comedian, she's his girlfriend, and they live in NYC. They'll talk about anything. One show was dedicated to discussion of Keith's psychotic father and the way he messes with his kids' heads. How is that entertainment, you ask? Good question, and I'm on board, in principle, but it's the way these two talk; the banter, the delivery, the ability to laugh at themselves that makes for a show you find yourself laughing out loud at. And cringing, at times, but if they didn't dance on the edge like that, the highs wouldn't be so high.
If you're feeling like you need to have a good laugh at the current administration before you wind up crying, may I recommend Whack My Bush? The Podcasts are short at approximately five minutes, and some of the jokes fall flat, but they're firing them at you so fast there's bound to be a dud here and there. It's just what it sounds like it is: a send up of the Bushies, with Condi as the task-master who keeps little Georgie on track, Tony Blair as a whimpering little wimp - oh, wait, I guess that one wasn't such a reach - and, my favorite, Donald Rumsfeld portrayed as Yoda. "Mmm... STUPID, he is." Quite a lot of fun, all in all.
Yeah, I'm late as hell getting started, but not as late as I usually am. And what I lack in punctuality I always make up for in obsessive-compulsive devotion, so look for more recommendations as I plow my way through the... um... Podesphere?
Excuse me, I'm new here. What do we call this land o' Podcasts?
posted by DJ at 12:33 AM
3 Comments:
audiotopia...
Or combine the two for Podiotopia.
Then again, that sounds like a really posh bathroom.
That's a good one. That opens the (trap) door for Poddysphere (Revenge of the SaniCan, man!)
Hey, wait... I came up with Podiosphere earlier. My God, I've become a major proponent of bathroom humor.
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